


Observer Bias

by jetsam



Series: Pillars of Seigaku [5]
Category: Prince of Tennis
Genre: 100-1000 Words, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-12-08
Updated: 2009-12-08
Packaged: 2017-10-04 06:52:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 322
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27245
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jetsam/pseuds/jetsam





	Observer Bias

When Echizen plays, Tezuka can see the lines of his movement the moment before he springs into action, the shadow of his stroke and the flash of the ball across the court. The actuality of it is almost anticlimactic.

Sometimes, he thinks he can read Echizen's movements off the court as well. He knows when Echizen will tug his cap down to hide a smirk or bend to fiddle with his laces. Mostly, this is because that's what Tezuka would like to be doing, if he weren't captain and didn't feel it was important to keep up appearances. Maybe he let his guard down more often when he was Echizen's age. Oishi could no doubt tell him, if Tezuka were to ask.

Tezuka always knows when Echizen will switch to his left hand, when he will shift forward onto his toes and get a glint in his eye. When they play Fudoumine, Tezuka knows that Echizen will keep playing even after he's received an injury. After all, Tezuka himself prefers to play through matches and he knows a good opponent when he sees one, one who will make him stretch himself.

Sometimes, the shadow he sees is more like himself than like Echizen, though he's sure he was never quite that short.

His guesses are still right.

When Ryuuzaki announces that Echizen is going back to America, it is all Tezuka can do to keep his jaw from dropping. Echizen took Seigaku's piller, _is_ Seigaku's pillar. He wouldn't have been captain, not quite, but in a year or so Tezuka had imagined him leading Seigaku to Nationals again.

Echizen is looking from one regular to the next, hat pulled low over his eyes, laces neat as if they'd been tied over and over again. When Kikumaru pounces on him and Momoshiro drops an arm around his shoulder, the smile he offers is relieved, almost shy.

Tezuka sighs and lets his shadow go.

 

****


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